Women in Cinema

I have always felt it is important to write about the work of women in cinema in a systematic way, and I have done it for many years now. It is only in the last decade, though, that I have come to realise the true and staggering extent of women’s exclusion from mainstream circulation networks and from the annals of film history. So I believe it is important to engage in extensive corrective work that will restore to visibility at least some of this work. It is in this vein that I am making available some of my texts that relate to the matter of women in cinema in different traditions and contexts.

I am actively engaged with a number of women’s film festivals. Whilst I still intend to do more thorough research on the long history of the festival in Creteil, France, I have had the chance to participate in or serve in various capacities at many more women’s film festival, such as those in Seoul (South Korea, the oldest one in Asia, since 1986), China (ONE WOMAN, Chengdu), Taiwan (Women Make Waves), Belgium (Elles Tournent, Brussels), Macedonia (Ohrid), Morocco (Sale), and Creteil (France, oldest one in the world, since 1979), as well as to monitor and assist the work of various non-specialist festivals on increasing the participation of female filmmakers in the era of 50/50 by 2020.

I have had the opportunity to give talks on women filmmakers in a variety of contexts, from a Women’s Film Conference at the Dhaka Film Festival in Bangladesh and the Beijing Film Academy, to various forums in Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Poland, Serbia, Macedonia, Latvia). I am also proud to be on the advisory board for Camera Obscura.

The material is copyrighted. Please make sure to reference appropriately if using it.

WOMEN IN BALKAN CINEMA (1996)

LYUBOV ORLOVA (2002)

WOMEN IN THE NEW BULGARIAN CINEMA (2009)

WOMEN DIRECTORS FROM SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE (2010)

WOMEN’S CINEMA, WOMEN’S CONCERNS (2012)

FEMALE DIRECTORS FROM SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE (2014)

THE TIME FOR CHANGE IS NOW (2018)

VENICE IFF AND FEMALE FILMMAKERS (2019)

WOMEN’S CINEMA AND FILM HISTORY (2020)

NAOMI KAWASE (2020/2021)

MESZAROS THE GIRL (2021)

NOTES ON BINKA ZHELYAZKOVA (2021)

KIRA MURATOVA: THE MAGNIFICENT MAVERICK (2021)